PLAY TO WIN
Isaac Butterworth
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Imagine that it is June. It is early morning, before sunrise. Someone stirs you from sleep and insists that you get up. Bleary-eyed, you wake just enough to see the time. It is 5:30. You remember that you’re in high school. But it’s summer and you don’t have to show up for class -- not today.
As your mind clears, you grasp the fact that you’re competing in the Texas-Oklahoma Junior Golf Tournament. Your tee time is eight a.m. That’s still two-and-a-half hours away. Who’s waking you up at this unseemly hour?
No sooner do you ask yourself the question than you know. It’s your grandfather, the man others call Dr. Kable. And, long before any of your competitors make it to the club house, you’re out on the driving range, practicing your swing in the dark.
That’s a window into Tim Kable’s life. That’s an appraisal of the impact of the way he approached life. He demanded perfection of himself, and he expected others to do everything possible to turn in their best performance. This was true whether it was on the field of play, in the classroom, or the O.R. Doing your best -- and reaching beyond your limits to do even better -- there was no other way that Tim Kable could see living.
He was not unlike the Apostle Paul in this regard. Golf hadn’t been invented when Paul was alive, so, in his writing, he used no golf allusions. But he used plenty of analogies to sports. For example, here in 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, he talks about running and boxing, two sports he knew well. ‘In a race,’ he says, ‘all the runners run, but only one gets the prize.’ Run, then, to get the prize. He could just as well have said, ‘In golf, all the players compete, but only one wins the trophy. Play to win.’
I don’t know that Dr. Tim had a life motto, but I think those words would come close to capturing his philosophy in living: Play to win. He brought excellence to everything he did.
To go back to Paul for a moment...he said, ‘Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.’ Dr. Tim knew that. It’s just another way of saying, everyone who wants to win disciplines himself. The way Paul put it was this. He said: ‘I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I [discipline] my body and make it [serve me].’
Some years ago, Stephen Covey wrote a best-selling book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Each of the ‘habits’ he commends in that book are worth tour attention, and my hunch is that Dr. Tim incorporated every one of those principles into his life long before Mr. Covey ever wrote his book. One that I know Dr. Tim practiced was this: ‘Private victory precedes public victory.’
You don’t show up at the tee box and perform your best without having spent time on the practice range. You don’t show up for class without having done your homework. You don’t face any external challenge without having prepared yourself internally. The challenges of life not only produce character; they reveal character.
And that’s what we know about Dr. Tim: he was a man of character. And no matter what he did in life, he knew how -- as kids today say -- he knew how to ‘bring it.’ And the reason was: he would ‘bring it’ in his mind and heart before he ever tried to ‘bring it’ in the view of others.
Dr. Tim had four great passions in life -- besides his family, and it goes without saying that his family always came first. And even they benefited from his other great loves. Dr. Tim was passionate about youth. He was passionate about medicine. He was passionate about teaching and learning. And he was passionate about sports.
And his great joy in life came from putting all these things together. He combined his love for young people with teaching and sports by coaching kids in almost every sport you can call to mind: football, baseball, basketball, and golf, for sure.
Of course, golf was his sport of sports. And if he found out that you might have the slightest interest in learning the game, he showered you with golf ‘stuff:’ clubs and gadgets and accessories and every sort of equipment you can imagine. Elizabeth tells me that they used to call their house on Milby ‘Doc’s Hock Shop.’
Dr. Tim also combined his love for medicine with his love for teaching and learning. Everyone who worked with him -- whether in the examining room or the operating room -- learned something from him. And he made it a point himself never to stop learning. On November 3, the date of his departure from this life, just two days ago, despite his advanced years and the limitations with which he was afflicted, his medical license was current. And it was on file because he took the courses and studied the material and passed the tests that were required every time the renewal date approached. He never stopped learning; he never stopped wanting to learn.
Dr. Tim ran to get the prize. He played to win. But the lesson we take away from his life isn’t a lesson just for doctors or golfers or even coaches or teachers. It’s a lesson for all of us. Whether you’re a physician or a golfer or a coach or whether you’re not, your have a life to live, and what’s important is to live it in such a way as to ‘get the prize.’
That’s why you and I, before we do anything else, have to ‘define the win.’ What do we think it means to win? What do we think it means to succeed? Dr. Tim lived to excel in every area of his life, but what did it mean to him to excel?
It had less to do with what kind of golfer he was -- although he was a very good one. What it had to do with, really, was what kind of person he was. Being always comes before doing. Private victories always precede public victories. Character always comes before performance. What you do reveals who you are. When the apostle Paul spoke of the athletes of his day, and how they disciplined themselves for the games, he said, ‘They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.’
That’s why, if you and I could examine Dr. Tim’s books, we would see that there were not a few patients who couldn’t pay, and he overlooked it. Time and time again, he absorbed the cost. That’s why, if you and I could see the things he did that never got into the public eye, we would see that he never turned away a single person in need. If they required medical attention, he treated them. If they were short on cash, he gave them the money to see them through. If they needed something else and he could provide it, he saw to it that they had it.
He wasn’t in life for what he could get out of it; he was in life for what he could put into it. He didn’t take; he gave. He loved people and used things, and not the other way ‘round.
Jesus once said, ‘By their fruit you will recognize them.’ And then he asked: ‘Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? [And the answer implied is ‘No.’] Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.... Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them’ (Matt. 7:16-18, 20).
What do you and I recognize in Dr. Tim? Here was a man who defined the ‘win’ not in terms of the bottom line or the accumulation of things but in terms of God and neighbor. He practiced to play, and he played to win. But not ‘to get a crown that will not last, but [rather...] to get a crown that will last forever.’
It was only by chance that I discovered that Dr. Tim and I shared a special fondness for the movie, Chariots of Fire. The film tells a story that takes place around the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Among those representing Great Britain is a young Scot named Eric Liddell, a devout Christian. Eric Liddell finds out that the 100 meter race is to be run on a Sunday, and his religious convictions won’t allow him to participate. As you can imagine, his decision makes the headlines in newspapers around the world.
Once asked why he ran, Eric Liddell said: ‘I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.’
I know that Dr. Tim knew that quote. And I also know this. Dr. Tim’s life gave God great pleasure.
